


One particular prom

by whywouldyou14



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 06:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2057121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whywouldyou14/pseuds/whywouldyou14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One-shot, 8 years before the meeting of the characters in the first episode of Breaking Bad. My version of why Mr. White remembers Jesse Pinkman so well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One particular prom

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking of writing this one-shot for two or three weeks by now. It came out more sad than I planned, but it is probably the weight of the events of the show that makes it like this. I am not from the US, so basically I describe the prom night of my country, where we have teachers and students celebrating the event together and teachers taking care of the students if something goes wrong. I don't know if it is similar in the US. Comments are very, bery welcome.

Early June was always a hard time for Walt ever since he started working with high school students seven years ago. Prom for the eleventh-graders. But this year it’s going to be even worse: it is their new and young principal Carmen’s first prom night in J.P.Wynne, and Walter can already see that she is very anxious about the organization, and, paradoxically, has some idealized version of the event that has nothing to do with the high school’s reality.

“Isn’t it wonderful, Walt? – she asks him during the preparations for the prom. – The big night for our students – they will say goodbye to their childhood and start their path to the grown up life!”

“Yes, Carmen”, – the chemistry teacher agrees dryly. – “Remember, though, that our students are in a very beneficial position: they are not exactly grown-ups yet, so technically any mess that they will make is solely our, I mean, you and the teachers’, responsibility”.

“You always try to take the fun out of everything, Walter. They will probably be so happy that they won’t do anything wrong!”

“Now I wouldn’t be so sure. You are here for less than a year, and I’ve been here for a while and I can assure you that every year the prom night is the same thing. You would be amazed how the students are predictable, and follow the exactly same scenario”.

“Oh really? So, how is our prom going to proceed this year?”

“You want to know, Carmen? All right. First of all, two or three girls will come on the celebration without a date, so they will be so hysterical about it that they will have to see the doctor, who will give them some sedative and, luckily for us, the girls’ parents will get here and take them home”.

“Ok. Then what?” – Carmen asks almost tentatively.

“Two guys, athletic, probably from the football team, will start a fight over a cheerleader. It will be up to Mr. Terrence, our P.E. teacher, to take them both in control and put them into two different corners of the hall. Then, probably close to the midnight, one of our students will try to put alcohol in the fruit punch, and, as hard as our biology goddess Mrs. Stimpleton will guard it, he will succeed. Everyone will get moderately drunk, but it will still be not very chaotic, because we will still be taking control of the situation”.

“Continue your prognosis, Mr. White”, – Carmen smiled.

“After 1 AM, one of our female co-workers, I am guessing Mrs. Peabody, will go to the bathroom to have a smoke, and will find some of our slutty girl-students – don’t frown at me, there is no other way to call them – in the cabin with some guy from the parallel class, being fucked like there’s no tomorrow. They will be stopped and sent home”.

“Is that all of the mess that is going to happen at the prom?” – Carmen asks him after a pause.

“No. In the end of the night, there is always this one student that surpasses everyone in the mess he makes. Some of us, probably me or Mr. Harper the psychologist, will find him on the floor of the bathroom, drunk as hell, high on pot, a vomiting mess and a complete failure, one of those slackers that couldn’t apply themselves for eleven years. And after his parents come to take him home, I will know that this insanity of a prom is over”, – Walt concludes.

Carmen frowns; she doesn’t like the prediction that Walt has made for her.

Sadly, the chemist is right in almost everything he said: after a greeting speech and the start of the party, Carmen enjoys the students’ dance just for an hour and a half. At 10 pm, Macey Green, a straight A student that has slight problems with obesity, is drowning in tears, because a popular girl Courtney said that she is a cow and couldn’t find herself a date. At 11 pm, the two best football players Chris and Nate are ready to kill each other, and soon after that she notices that her students are drunk; some of them, like Johnny Plant and Casey Smith, are ready to dance naked on the table, and if it wasn’t for Mr. Grew the gardener, her career would be seriously compromised. She doesn’t even want to know about the pair who tried to lose their virginity in the bathroom.

Walt doesn’t guess only one thing, and it’s about the drunk and high loser at three AM. There is one all right, and when they tell Carmen about the broken mirror and a pool of vomit she already knows the name. Jesse Pinkman. The kid is so drunk he can’t even realize where he is, and the young principal asks Walt to get him back to senses. The chemistry teacher does it without questioning: he puts Jesse on a bench, gives him two or three quite professional slaps on the face and gives him lots and lots of water. Finally their seventeen-year-old responsibility is back to his senses. Almost.

The problem is, no matter how many times Carmen calls the boy’s parents, no one answers the phone. Carmen is on the verge of crying; she practically begs Walter to go and take the drunk kid home. Walter grumbles, but finally takes his keys and drags the drunken mess of Jesse Pinkman into his car.

Walt is really unhappy with how the things went. No matter how hard he tries, it is always him who gets to clean up the mess in the end. It’s his fault though: Skyler called him twice during the evening, strongly advising him to go home, since Junior is sick with flu, and it is truly not his business, these graduates, and didn’t he flunk like half of them out of his chemistry class anyway?

But somehow Walt feels it’s important to do what he is supposed to. He stops the car in front of a neat and freshly painted house.

“Nice house.” – he comments absent-mindedly to Pinkman, who is so bad that he hardly lifts his head from the chest to listen. “So, are you able to walk yourself and open the door, or do you need me to help you here?”

“I… don’t live here anymore”, – the kid mutters, hiccupping. – “My parents kicked me out for smoking pot”.

The older man looks at Pinkman in disbelief, trying to digest the information.

“Perfect. Just perfect, Pinkman. What am I supposed to do with a minor, at 4 AM in the morning, who has nowhere to stay? Drop you at some hellhole, so you can continue your party?”

“Hey, chill out, Mr. White! I have home, yo. Just drop me a few blocks away, man, that’s where my aunt lives”.

Walt drives in silence. He feels a little sad for Pinkman: since the first time he saw him answering in his chemistry class, Walt knew the guy wouldn’t put up to much. At least in chemistry. But he didn’t even suspect how much of a failure this student already was in life. He finally stops at a much smaller and dirtier house.

“Well, that’s it. Are you going to be okay? Do you need any help?”

Jesse takes his coat from the seat and starts to get out. When Walt looks at him, the boy almost seems grateful.

“Nah, thanks, Mr. White. I’m fine. Thanks for, like, helping me out. For everything, that is”.

Walt is pleased and yet upset. It is sad to see a young person like that throw his life into flames that early.

“I know it might sound unlikely, man, but maybe one day I will repay you for kindness”, – Jesse continues, smiling with his perfectly white teeth. He is already getting out of the car, but suddenly, Mr. White finds this phrase amusing and chuckles.

“Yeah, I would like to see that, Jesse. I mean, I already flunked you out of my class, so any hopes of medical assistance should be discarded. Mr. Burton told me you blew algebra too, so I don’t think you might create some architectural design for me”.

Jesse smiles sadly.

“I could be a fire-fighter, you know. They don’t need any special knowledge”.

Walt starts laughing openly: “Sorry, weren’t you the one who started a fire in my class two years ago?”

He stops when he sees Jesse’s crushed face, and immediately feels guilty. He wants to make it up for the kid somehow, and gently brushes his hand on his former student’s shoulder.

“I am sorry, Jesse. Didn’t mean to be rude here, pal, I’ve just had a... really hard day. You are going to turn out just fine, I am pretty sure”.

Jesse looks at him skeptically, and Mr. White just can’t let this kid go away like this, without at least some encouragement.

“That is, if you apply yourself, Jesse. You have some artistic talents, don’t you?”

“So you liked my drawing, huh?” – the kid smirks, and Walt immediately loses the pity.

“No. But I believe they could teach you some sense in the art school. Did you talk to your parents about that? You could still apply for some art colleges, I am sure”.

Jesse says he didn’t, but yeah, sounds like a cool idea, he should totally try it. He finally gets up from his seat and opens the car door.

“Thank you again, Mr. White. I… hope next year’s prom will be better for you than this one”.

“That’s very… thoughtful of you, Jesse. I guess I will see you around”.

“Uh, yeah. Good night, Mr. White”.

Jesse closes the door and slowly goes to his aunt’s house. He feels sad: Mr. White has been so nice to him that he didn’t have the guts to tell the truth about his college plans. There were actually none: after his parents decided that he is a complete failure, his college funds were all spent on his newborn brother, Jake. It didn’t really matter though, because he would probably never see Mr. White again.

Little did he knew.


End file.
